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How was your holiday weekend? This photo sums it up for me.
Gracie tubing at Heritage Lake
Post-weekend Pep Talk How did you do with your wellness goals? You did great? Oh, I'm so proud of you. That is so awesome and quite an accomplishment. Keep up the good work!
You didn't do so well? Here, I'll help you make sure you get back on track. First, if you have any negative self-talk going on put an end to it right now. Here I'll wait ... No really, get rid of it ...
Ok, next I want you to think of at least one smart choice you made this weekend. I'm sure you have them. Think back to how you would have played this weekend a few years ago compared to how you played it this year. Did you skip an extra dessert? Avoid the fruity drink cooler? Go to an extra spin class? I know you made some smart choices - reflect on those when the negative talk sneaks it's way in.
Finally, just keep moving forward. Make the rest of the week perfect. Plan ahead how you're going to eat and make sure you get in as much exercise as you can. Never give up.
Surrounding Yourself With Positive People Moving on to the title of this blog post. Surrounding yourself with positive people. This is important for all around life, not just wellness. I'm am very much influenced by other people. I could never be on those reality shows where you vote someone else off because I would change my mind every three seconds. One guy would tell me to vote off this girl and list all the reasons and I would be like - "yeah, you're right, I'm going to vote her off." Then I'd be talking to that girl and she would tell me to vote off the other guy and why and then I would be with her.
I've seen it happen everywhere - with friends, in the workplace, at the gym, etc. If you're with someone that's negative, that negativity with rub itself off on you. Same goes for positive influences as well. So obviously, my advice is to gravitate to those positive people in your life.
Non-Stop Week Remember last weekend when I wrote about my Plan-Free Weekend? Part of the reason I was looking forward to it was because it was the calm before the storm. My brother and his family came for a visit this past week and we always try to make the most of our time visiting with them so I knew it would be a busy week.
One of our traditions for my brother's visits is to make the rounds at their favorite restaurants. I should add here that all the adults in my family are making a conscience effort to eat healthy. So while we did still visit our favorite places, I could see people were making smart choices. We all indulged from time-to-time, but it wasn't a straight out free-for-all.
I think knowing that we were all in the same place made it easier for us to make smart choices. We were surrounded with positivity. There was no judging. There was no - "oh, one bite won't hurt you." There was no - "I'm on vacation so I'm going to eat whatever I want."
Instead there was support. We split entrees. We went easy at lunches knowing that we would indulge at dinner. We skipped the bread basket. And we talked about it. We talked about how our wellness programs were going. We gave each other tips and talked about our favorite exercise classes at our gym.
Most importantly we spent time together. Yes, we went to our favorite restaurants, but we'll remember our time together the most. Isn't that what's important? We watched the five cousins play together. There were trips to the zoo, and old universities and to the lake. It was fun and non-stop and exhausting.
Progress Report I think it will be helpful to me to put it out there the choices I made this week and then move on. Friday was my worst day food wise. I took the day off work and went to Cub Scout Day Camp with Jim and the kids. I took Gracie to the trading post to get a snack and I got a Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia bar without thinking about it. I ate it and then figured out how many points it was. It was 7. I was disappointed with myself. I knew we were going out that night with my brother and sister-in-law and I wanted to save up my points. Seven points is a lot to blow on ice cream. We went to my favorite restaurant that night. The smart choice I made was to split my entree with Kim and although I did eat the delicious garlic bread, I didn't eat as much as I wanted. Where I messed up was eating a piece of Jim's pizza and eating the whole dish of ice cream instead of only a few bites. Then there's the pitcher of sangria that came later in the night, but I was planning on indulging there so I was good with that.
That's pretty much how this weekend went. Making some poor choices (extra helping of cheesy potatoes, giant cookie, chips and cheese) but offsetting it with good choices (neither Kim or I mentioned the word "popcorn" at the movie theater, skipping the breadsticks and cheese, eating a salad instead of a Stromboli, only eating one giant cookie instead of three, going to Zumba Saturday morning when I hadn't planned on going).
Stick with those good choices, surround yourself with positive people and keep moving forward.
Zumba Corner As I mentioned above I went to Zumba on Saturday morning when I hadn't planned to go. On Friday night I posted on my Facebook status that I would need to go after all the garlic bread I ate. So then it was out there, people would expect me to be there and I would have to answer the hecklers if I didn't show up. Even after the pitchers of sangria, I did manage to get to class at 9:45 a.m. Lisa was subbing and it was a great class. A lot of new music and new routines with a few oldies thrown it. I had talked to a friend of mine, Jodi, on Friday who was at camp with her son. I knew she was interested in Zumba so I let her know I would be there on Saturday and she decided to come. It's so fun to have a friend try out class. It's exciting to see if they'll like it or not. I think she did. Mary Ellen was in class too (she was my first friend to try out Zumba) she also has a son in the same grade as Jodi and me. It was nice for us to all chat after class. Then on the way out of the building I ran in to Rachael who's son is also in the same grade. Rachael and I went to high school together and have reconnected on Facebook (gotta love that Facebook) she wants to try out Zumba too. It's so nice to go to the gym and workout, but it's even better when you have other people there that will greet you with a smile on their face. It does make a difference.
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